For the first time in 35 years, the U.S. military surpassed all its recruiting goals. In 2009, 168,900 people joined the military.
 Money for Jobs and Education, not Military Recruitment! |
The recruitment number reached is 103 percent above all goals for this fiscal year. The National Guard and reserve forces recruited at a level 104 percent above their targets.
The Pentagon has correctly cited the current economic crisis, the worst since the Great Depression, as the motivating factor for the latest wave of recruits. The official unemployment rate stood at 9.8 percent in September. The real unemployment rate, according to the AFL-CIO, is around 17 percent.
Unemployment for youth between the ages of 16 and 19 is 25.8 percent. Unemployment for youth between the ages of 20 and 24 is 15.1 percent. For African Americans, it is 40.7 and 27.1, respectively.
The recent rise in workers entering the military highlights the nature of military recruitment: It is a vulture-like economic draft that thrives off capitalist unemployment, underemployment and lack of educational opportunities, especially amongst the poorest youth. There is no other way to explain the entirely unprecedented enlistment numbers in a time when signing up for the imperialist war machine means going off to fight and die in unpopular colonial-style wars.
The military bribes and lies to unemployed and poor youth with promises of bonuses, health care, housing and financial aid for school—average signing bonuses were $14,000 in 2008, which is a $2,000 increase from 2008.
Recent tactics in recruiting have been to simply flood the streets and schools with military recruiters who target youth from poor and oppressed communities and to swell the budget for youth-oriented advertising campaigns.
Now that opportunities are disappearing and joblessness and evictions are soaring, the number of recruits with high school diplomas increased from 83 percent to 95 percent.
In reality, only 35 percent of veterans receive money for college, and only 15 percent ever graduate. The majority of those who do receive financial aid get little more in educational stipends than they would receive from Pell Grants, federal grants given to low-income students.
More than 18 percent of veterans from the current wars who look for work upon returning find themselves unemployed, and more and more find themselves homeless.
An outrageous sum, $5 billion, was spent on military recruiting in 2009. Trillions of dollars have been spent on wars for the billionaires and their oil companies, while money for education and health care are being mercilessly slashed all across the country. There is more than enough money: All working people should fight to bring home the troops and give every young worker a quality education and a job.
